Candelária massacre. Prejudice towards Brazilian street children

Resumen o Introducción

On 23 July 1993, at night, a group of men fired on a group of over 50 street children who were sleeping in the surrounding area of the Candelária Church, in Rio de Janeiro city centre. Five children and one young adult were killed almost immediately, three others were kidnapped with fatal consequences for two of them. The remaining survived a shot on his face as the gang had left him for dead. Taking in sum, seven children and one young adult where killed in this episode. However the disgrace for the survivors did not stop that night, it is believed that 39 out of the children who used to sleep in Candelária by that time have died in a violent way (AI, 2003). This butchery was carried out by “death squads”, which mainly involved members of the Military Police of Rio, that is, those who are supposed to protect the civilians. Its “origin”, in words of the accused me, was some stones thrown at a police car. The Candelária slaughter has also become famous for being the first time that a Brazilian policeman is found guilty of murdering a street child (Csillag, 1996)
In the following pages I will try to explain the general situation of street children, and why they exist in Brazil, while making references to how psychological and criminological theories can explain their situation. However, first I will define “what” a street child is, and what are they major concerns [...]